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    <title>Transport Research International Documentation (TRID)</title>
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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
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    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
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      <title>Transport Research International Documentation (TRID)</title>
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    <item>
      <title>HOW TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORT SYSTEMS CAN BENEFIT FROM PSYCHOLOGY</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/635099</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The aim of this chapter is to elaborate on the contributions which psychology as an applied science can make to the design and operation of traffic and transport systems, taking the term 'psychology' to cover a broad range of human factors issues, including cognitive ergonomics, and considering transport systems in general. Because trends in contributions to this field of application can be identified only by examining developments in several different areas of psychology, it is necessary to discuss previous varying interests of psychologists in this field and then consider where these various strands may lead in the future, given more recent developments in both psychology and transport research. It is also important to consider not simply the content of psychology's potential contributions to traffic and transport systems but also the process by which they can best be translated into viable benefits for safety and mobility.  For the covering abstract, see IRRD 896859.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 1998 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/635099</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>TRANSPORT PSYCHOLOGY IN EUROPE: A GENERAL OVERVIEW</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/635100</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This chapter about transport psychology in Europe is not a directory of 70 years of research work in European countries, it is a general overview, an attempt of empirical classification of chronological tendencies and a preparation for a future field of research. Three stages of the development of transport psychology from the beginning of the century (the 'psychometrics' stage) to the present day (the 'technical attendance') are considered in their main trends as also the areas of psychology which are applied in transport psychology in each country, according to the information collected (for a history of psychology applied to transport on a European scale, see Klebelsberg, 1982; Tortosa, Montoro & Carbonell, 1989; Echteroff, 1991; Blasco, 1994). The development of transport psychology is deeply associated with the development of transport itself, with public safety policies and with the preventive and technical measures taken by transport operators and the car industry. Transport psychology is closely connected to the development of safety, first, and still foremost, the safety of professional drivers and then that of all categories of transport users. The main emphasis of this chapter is on the psychology of car drivers.  For the covering abstract, see IRRD 896859.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 1998 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/635100</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>DO WE NEED TRAFFIC PSYCHOLOGY MODELS?</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/635101</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In this chapter the author shows how the development of traffic psychology is characterised by the fact that in the past 25 years a large number of experiments and investigations were carried out to provide answers to individual questions and solutions for parts of a problem. In so doing, behavioural models or theories relating to road traffic were seldom used as the foundation for processing the data in an integrated way and for developing a theoretical basis for traffic psychology. Although more and more psychological models are being developed in this field (see, for example, Michon, 1989, IRRD 822781, or Ranney, 1994), all too often individual results are placed alongside each other in an unrelated way and the benefits of a theory which would integrate this knowledge remain unexplored.  For the covering abstract, see IRRD 896859.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 1998 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/635101</guid>
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      <title>HIERARCHICAL MODEL OF BEHAVIOURAL ADAPTATION AND TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/635102</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Behavioural adaptation has been a focal concept in traffic psychology since the mid 1970's. Much effort has been used to define it, and many models have been devised to describe and explain it. However, these attempts sometimes are at risk of confusing the general phenomenon and mechanisms underlying it. This paper defines the behavioural adaptation as a tendency of the driver to react to changes in the traffic system, whether they be in the vehicle, in the road environment, in road and weather conditions, or in his/her own skills or states, and that this reaction occurs in accordance with his/her motives. Very obviously, this kind of adaptive behaviour occurs at many levels of the functional hierarchy of driver behaviour. Therefore, risk-related behaviour should be considered at several levels with different mechanisms to produce behavioural adaptation, often called 'risk compensation'. At a high level, trip decisions modify populations at risk in different circumstances, sometimes attenuating, sometimes amplifying population risk differences. For example, elderly drivers tend to avoid difficult conditions and succeed in keeping the fatality risk per person at a moderate level, while young male drivers at the other end of the continuum use cars very dangerously at nights on weekends. At a low level of vehicle control and guidance in real dynamic traffic situations, simpler control mechanisms which result in behavioural adaptation can be identified. Among these mechanisms, maintenance of safety margins and proper attention allocation play a major role. All these effects influence the end result of accident risk as separate mechanisms.  For the covering abstract, see IRRD 896859.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 1998 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/635102</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THEORIES AND A THEORY OF PSYCHOLOGY</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/635103</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The author argues that the mental constructions called theories are simply the natural expression of adaptive cognitive processes. That is, they are part of those normal mental processes that enable us to adjust more effectively to the world in which we find ourselves, in the same way as physical attributes such as superior bodily strength and better camouflage or mental attributes such as a fast and reliable recognition memory. He illustrates this adaptive role of theory by showing how a particular theoretical formulation can help integrate diverse areas of knowledge in the domain of accident prevention and generate new interventions to make for safer roadway use.  For the covering abstract, see IRRD 896859.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 1998 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/635103</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>ERRORS AND VIOLATIONS AS FACTORS IN ACCIDENT CAUSATION</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/635104</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The author suggests that the distinction between violation and error is, at present, arbitrary. This is due to the fact that there is no useable taxonomy of normative driver behaviour. Even if there would be, translating such a taxonomy into a dynamic driver model would still have to be accomplished. So far, the notion of computational modelling has not yet produced a representation of driver behaviour. Motivational models, on the other hand, still lack precision to be able to distinguish between error and violation. Much progress has been made in understanding the mechanisms underlying intentional violations, but this line of research is based on a priori assumptions of error-based and violation-based behaviour. The distinction between error and violation, or unintended and intended deviation from normative, reference behaviour is not just a theoretic issue. It has far reaching consequences for the way deviant behaviour can be corrected. Driver training should distinguish between the two. Identifying deviant drivers is only useful if it is determined why they are deviant. In transport telematics, driver support systems based on error correction and driver surveillance systems based on violation detecting and feedback need to be integrated. The debate about errors versus violations as accident contributory factors needs to be preceded by a discussion about how to distinguish between the two.  For the covering abstract, see IRRD 896859.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 1998 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/635104</guid>
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      <title>PARADIGMS OF PRACTICE BEYOND TRAFFIC SAFETY THEORIES AND MODELS</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/635105</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In this paper, the author argues that new theories and models related to traffic safety are continuously being created. It may be a common belief that they express a free flow of expert thinking, but in fact they indicate timely paradigms representing common ideas of the safe flow of everyman's traffic. Accordingly, changes in the orientation of theories follow deeper changes in traffic culture. Such changes can be recognised as turning points of historical scrutiny. Four paradigmatic ideas, each of which has dominated thinking in their time, can be distinguished. At the beginning of the century, motorised traffic was perceived as a continuation of horse-driven traffic, horse carriages were merely replaced by motor vehicles. Thereafter, the idea of mastering the traffic situations by skilled drivers dominated decennia, then the idea of controlling risks in the traffic system gained a leading position, whereas the present paradigm underlines management of the transport system as a whole, the road transport and car traffic being only a part of it. The paradigms have guided traffic safety work, its targets, its measures, its funding, as well as orientations in research and theories. It may be interesting to guess what kind of paradigmatic changes could be expected in the future.  For the covering abstract, see IRRD 896859.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 1998 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/635105</guid>
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      <title>TRAFFIC SAFETY AND THE NEW RESEARCH PARADIGM IN HUMAN SCIENCES</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/635106</link>
      <description><![CDATA[New developments in the philosophy of science have led to the emergence of a new humanistic paradigm in some areas of psychological research, which could also contribute to traffic psychology and traffic safety. The new paradigm is based on the concept that human beings exist within an experience of meaning, and can act with self-determining purposes. This paper presents three of its research methods, which have special relevance to traffic psychology. Phenomenological research involves a return to experience, and aims to reveal and clarify the phenomena of behaviour as they manifest themselves in their perceived immediacy. Grounded research focuses on unravelling the elements of experience. Cooperative inquiry focuses on that aspect of research which is not independent of action; it is research with and for people rather than on them. Research procedures and methods depend on the content of what is being studied and on the approach taken towards that content. Traffic psychology concerns human behaviour in a dangerous environment. Technically trained traffic experts often like human beings to behave like machines in the traffic environment, to be more controllable, but road users in traffic do not usually behave like machines. The human science approach can lead to a deeper understanding of human traffic behaviour.  For the covering abstract, see IRRD 896859.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 1998 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/635106</guid>
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      <title>TIME-TO-COLLISION JUDGEMENTS: VISUAL AND SPATIO-TEMPORAL FACTORS</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/635107</link>
      <description><![CDATA[A fundamental aspect in driving is predicting critical events in the near future. A driver on a collision course, for example, has to accurately evaluate how close s/he is to the impending collision in order to brake or swerve at the right time. In other words, s/he has to judge time-to-collision (TTC), which refers to the time that remains before reaching an obstacle, and thus to the time available for taking action. TTC is considered to be a crucial parameter in controlling avoidance behaviour. TTC is also likely to be involved in more complex judgement tasks such as overtaking or left-turn manoeuvres, where the driver has to determine whether there is enough time for the planned action. The underlying concept of temporal action control is being used increasingly often in the study of driving behaviour, which addresses the anticipatory aspects of actions such as braking, trajectory control, car following, traffic merging decisions, curve taking, stop-or-go decisions at intersections, and so on. Various equivalent terms have been employed, depending on the situation under investigation, including 'time-to-contact', 'time-to-arrival', and 'time-to-go'. The concept has also proven useful in aircraft conflict resolution and ship piloting, which involve considerably larger time frames. The current study is more specifically concerned with impending collision situations which occur when a driver is approaching a stationary vehicle. The objective was to investigate the determinants of perception-related errors which are thought to contribute to rear-end collisions (Mortimer, 1990). Rear-end collisions represent 20-25% of the total number of accidents, and 80% of rear-end crashes occur in situations where the vehicle struck was stationary or travelling very slowly. A better understanding of the visual information that drivers need to accurately judge TTC in this situation is an important condition for effective preventive action.  For the covering abstract, see IRRD 896859.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 1998 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/635107</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>DETECTION TIME OF A LEADING VEHICLE'S MOTION: EFFECTS OF DRIVING SPEED AND LAYOUT</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/635108</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In this paper, the author demonstrates that the segmentation problems related to object-motion detection increase with simultaneous subject-motion, leading to higher detection times (experiment 1). Motion detection is impaired mainly by the optical flow, associated with self-motion, surrounding the leading vehicle. The general optical flow in the visual field and the peripheral one seems to be less important (experiment 2). It should be noted that the available hardware clearly constrains the density of optical flow that can be stimulated. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect higher rates of detection times under natural conditions and with more powerful experimental facilities. Considering the results in these two experiments related above, the author outlines two applied implications. First, the current models of computation of braking and safety distances should be reviewed. The driver's reaction time should be considered as a variable and not as a constant. The degrees of freedom would be the subject-motion velocity, the relative motion of the target vehicle or object, and the density of the optical flow surrounding the target. Secondly, it is reasonable to expect that by manipulating the road environment the driver's motion detection performance could be controlled. It could be possible to promote better driver reaction times by reducing the road texture and the amount of traffic signs, both horizontal and vertical. However, further experiments should be performed to enable the development of a new model of driver reaction time computation and specific guidelines to road design.  For the covering abstract, see IRRD 896859.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 1998 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/635108</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>CONCURRENT VERBALISATION DURING DRIVERS' VISUAL SEARCH AND HAZARD PERCEPTION</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/635109</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The experiment described in this chapter aims to investigate whether concurrent verbalisation affects what it purports to measure: the search strategy or fixation patterns of drivers; and whether any effects are passed on to higher order skills such as hazard perception. It also examines the utility of verbalisation in regard to its relationship with what subjects actually look at in the driving scene.  For the covering abstract, see IRRD 896859.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 1998 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/635109</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>AUTOMATICITY AND DRIVING: TIME TO CHANGE GEAR?</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/635110</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Many authors on driving consider that at least some subset of its essential operations is performed automatically. This paper critically evaluates the basis of these claims by analysing the activity of changing gear in considerable detail. It compares and contrasts the properties of automaticity, assumed by different theories, with data sets collected under actual driving conditions. Several different accounts of automaticity in driving are outlined; they have different implications for how drivers should be trained, how their risk taking and decision making should be understood, and why some in-car devices may provoke greater distraction than others. Evidence from red-light violations suggests that the task of approaching traffic signals should not be viewed as automatic. The following results about variability of the components of gear changes have been obtained: (1) changing up and changing down have different variability; (2) performances of specific components of gear changing do not predict each other; and (3) although the two components within a gear change are correlated, neither is related to the variance of the time taken to complete a gear change. The authors' investigations of components of driving skill give little support to at least two specific theories of automaticity of driving.  For the covering abstract, see IRRD 896859.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 1998 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/635110</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>WHEN EXPECTANCIES BECOME CERTAINTIES: A POTENTIAL ADVERSE EFFECT OF EXPERIENCE</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/635111</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The expectancy systems produced by experience usually operate correctly but occasionally produce incorrect responses; for example, routine errors can occur in expert functioning. This paper presents research which attempts to examine driving activity to reveal the potentially negative effects resulting from an intensive use of a process incorporating a cognitive component. Road accidents were studied to reveal this potential source of error, 'over-experience'. A sample of accident cases involving over-experienced drivers was analysed, to identify the different types of error that can be produced in this way, and identify the types of situation where these negative effects become a reality. Accidents involving experienced drivers were selected from the 500 cases in the INRETS-MA in-depth database. Several specific types of failure of driving behaviour were found for crossing an intersection without or with right of way, driving through bends, and car following. The study's second stage was the development of an experimental device, using a maze, to investigate more systematically the influence of over-experience in the cognitive processes previously identified as defective. It was used to 'reproduce' some of the basic components found in driving, while being able to manipulate experience artificially.  For the covering abstract, see IRRD 896859.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 1998 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/635111</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>ON THE MEASUREMENT OF DRIVER MENTAL WORKLOAD</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/635112</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Driver mental workload and its assessment are becoming more and more important with increased penetration of 'Road Transport Informatics' and with changes in driver population and capability, i.e. the increasing number of elderly drivers. In particular newly developed electronic driver support systems, such as route guidance systems, are being tested now for their potential negative effect on driving performance because of the additional mental workload they impose. The increased attention for mental workload techniques has made obvious that there are many factors that complicate accurate assessment of workload in the field. Firstly, there are different causes for increased workload. Both an impaired driver state, e.g. as a result of the use of alcohol, and increased complexity, e.g. an additional task that has to be performed, lead to elevated driver mental workload. Secondly, the measurement techniques themselves are differentially sensitive to changes in workload. Thirdly, the driving task is to a large extent a self-paced task. This means that the driving speed chosen or the accuracy in lane-keeping are adapted by the driver, not only on the basis of external demands but are also dependent upon strategy and self-set goals. Not only these factors in isolation, but also their interaction complicate the measurement of drivers' mental workload. In an effort to understand this, mental workload, task demands and performance were related to each other in a simple model, which was presented. Several of the problems that are encountered when trying to measure mental workload are put in a different perspective in this model.  For the covering abstract, see IRRD 896859.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 1998 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/635112</guid>
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      <title>CONTRIBUTION OF OBSERVATION AND VERBAL REPORT TECHNIQUES TO AN ANALYSIS OF ROAD SITUATIONS AND DRIVERS' ACTIVITY</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/635113</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The method developed for the research programme reported in this chapter enabled an in-depth investigation of drivers' activity in the complex interactions to be found in real traffic conditions. It involved describing the actual in-situ behaviour of drivers and, on the basis of an analysis of the observed behaviour and related verbal statements characterising their activity, identifying their knowledge and the strategies they apply when managing the various road situations studied. It thus provides a way of describing effective driver practices and identifying a set of variables likely to explain them. Weighting the relative significance of these variables in relation to specific driving situations is necessary for gaining a better understanding of driver behaviour in traffic. The drivers' activity model inferred from these analyses formalises the results obtained. Its accuracy depends on the degree of refinement of the data available. The results obtained open up avenues for further research in order to make the model more comprehensive and accurate, and to validate it.  For the covering abstract, see IRRD 896859.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 1998 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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